Landslide Lyndon
(Sometimes You Gotta Lose)
To Win the War
Singers: President Lyndon Johnson
LYRICS
LBJ confronts the rising death toll of the War in Vietnam and his inability to emerge victoriously. For guidance, he turns to his departed father, who had been a Texas state congressman and had taught a young Lyndon to stand up for those less fortunate. He realizes that to win the greater battle for peace, he must halt the bombing of North Vietnam, even if it means that the Communists remain in power. He announces this change in course, along with his shocking decision not to run for re-election, on national television, and walks off with Lady Bird and his two daughters.
INT. WHITE HOUSE BASEMENT. LATER THAT NIGHT. NIGHT
LBJ stumbles out into the front of the stage in his bathrobe, his hair a mess, Cutty Sark glass in his hand
LBJ
How does a god damn blackout happen in the White House? My god, it's 3 a.m. Where's that goddamn machine? Ah yes...
He grabs the feed and reads
LBJ
March second, 1968... what? ... Seventy three dead... an ambush of company C near Quoi Xuan... In 8 minutes... 48 men were gone." In eight minutes - that's six a minute
He pulls more ticker tape
LBJ
The names... Samuel Smith... Kyle Montgomery... George Taylor... Lyndon - Lyndon Baines...
(slowing down)
Johnson ... Gonzales
He puts his head in his hand and sobs
LBJ
No! Huisso, forgive me Huisso
He stumbles off stage in front of the curtain, dragging the ticker tape.
LBJ
Bird?
The stage is dark as the curtain comes up. LBJ enters with a flashlight
LBJ
Where's the bedroom? We're in the West Wing, dammit? Oh!
He is startled as his foot hits a body. He shines his flashlight over the stage to reveal 15 bodies, some in US army attire, some Vietnamese, lying dead on the ground. He continues to walk in his bathrobe over the bodies to exit
LBJ
Bird! Bird!
LBJ:
When did my vision
Get so unclear?
How did this mission
Drag on year after year?
I keep on find myself wishin’
It all would disappear
With two battles lost
For every one we’ve won
Sometimes the bravest thing a man can do
Is turn around and run
Daddy, I can’t hear your voice anymore
I need you to tell me - What am I fighting for?
Sometimes you gotta lose
Sometimes you gotta lose
Sometimes you gotta lose
To win the war.
I hear Bobby
I hear John
And McNamara in my ear
Trying to say the Viet Kong
Are really nothing much to fear
Just 1000 more shipped to Saigon
And we’ll quickly persevere
Spend so much blood and treasure
Trying to climb that slippery slope
Meanwhile here at home
my Great Society is broke
Daddy, I can’t stand to hear these voices anymore
I need you to tell me - What are they fighting for?
What’ll I tell my maker
When I’m standing at his door?
Sometimes you gotta lose
Sometimes you gotta lose
Sometimes you gotta lose
To win the war.
(Humming)
LBJ leaves the battlefield and returns to the oval.
LBJ: Rusk, the networks in here. I’m getting on TV.
(Everyone shuffles and cameras roll in as LBJ sits at the desk)
LBJ: Good evening fellow Americans.
Tonight I want to talk to you about the peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
No other question so preoccupies our people.
Tonight we stop out bombardment is North Vietnam in exchange for substantive peace talks.
I therefore do not think I can devote another minute to any partisan personal goals outside of my duties as president.
Accordingly I shall not seek
And will not accept
My party’s nomination for another term as president.
God bless you all.
Daddy I can hear you like I never have before
Seems I’ve always run for something
Now I’m running for the door
Cause I’ve found the one thing I know’s worth fighting for
(Gets up, puts hat on and puts arms around Bird and the girls and walks of stage right singing:)
Sometimes you gotta lose
Sometimes you gotta lose
Sometimes you gotta lose
To win the war